It Came From Beneath the Sink

I went into my local library today to see which Goosebumps DVD's they had. They didn't have many but I checked out what they had so that I don't burn out through my own collection fairly fast.

In the "It Came from Beneath the Sink" DVD, there are only two episodes, which I hope to cover today and tomorrow. I'm okay with this episode but the second episode on this set... "Strained Peas" is just...

Though we'll cross that bridge when we get there.

Quick Summary (From Wikipedia)

Kat finds a sponge under the sink of her new house that's actually a monster that causes and feeds on bad luck.

What I Remember from this Episode

I've watched it before but I don't actually remember much. This episode will either be a decent mess or just straight up garbage. 

What Happens In this Episode...

A family just moved in to a new house. As usual, one of the characters complains about not wanting to move but her Mother assures her that it won't be as bad as she thinks. As they get out of the van, their friend Carlo reassures them by letting them know he only lives about 8 minutes away form their old house.

As is typical, once they step foot in the house, their dog (called Killer) runs off and the girl goes chasing after him, while stating that she knew something bad was going to happen. The dog runs off into the kitchen and begins barking and sniffing around the cabinets, particularly the ones underneath the sink, until the girl character pulls him away and leads him outside.

Once Killer is outside, the girl whose name isn't mentioned yet (her name is Kat), checks out the cabinets Killer was pawing around at. She sees a pair of glowing eyes, thinking that it's a cat. She tries to go in deeper into the cabinet looking for the cat. Instead of a cute, fluffy cat, she finds herself face-to-face with...

A sponge with teeth.

Yes. A sponge with teeth. She gets scared and gets out of the cabinet. Once out, she sees the sponge on the floor and picks it up. Until it makes a hissing noise and she screams, drops it, and steps away.

Her parents run in, asking her what happened, and immediately her brother teases her for being scared of a sponge. Her parents don't believe her and Kat's dad eventually throws the sponge away in the garbage.

Now it's nighttime and Kat is washing her face. We then see the sponge walking (?? sliding?) into the bathroom. Kat reaches up to clean her face but instead touches the sponge, causing her to become scared and knock a cup down, which breaks on the floor and her brother Daniel steps on, thus cutting his foot.

After everyone is asleep, Killer has a run-in with the sponge and whimpers in fear.

The next morning, Killer has gone missing and no one knows where he is at. While riding to school, the brakes on Kat's bike don't work and she is sent flying down a hill after hitting a tree branch on the ground. She's okay, but is getting more worried about the bad things that keep happening to her family. When she gets home, Kat, Daniel, and Carlo freak out when the sponge turns up under Kat's helmet. Kat then grabs the sponge and buries it in the backyard.

After the plants in the backyard begin dying, Kat and Daniel take the sponge out of its buried spot (is a dry garden really enough to unearth that thing?) and Kat decides to take it to school, where she hopes a teacher will tell her what the sponge is. The teacher manages to discover that the sponge is just a sponge and is of no help to Kat.

Later that night, Carlo is reading Encyclopedia of the Weird, a book that states the evil sponge is actually a Grool, a creature that causes bad luck to those around it and "feeds off" this bad luck. Even more eerie, if the owner gives the Grool away, they will die. Dun, dun, dun!! And guess who the owner is?

Kat, Daniel, and Carlo then rush out to get the Grool back, which is still in the possession of Kat's teacher at the school. The gang easily breaks into a locked school but don't find the Grool in the classroom. The janitor goes inside the classroom to clean up and the gang hides. The janitor is eventually knocked out when he goes to check out why the lights went out inside the classroom.

Using this as their chance to look for the Grool, Kat steps on a stool to see if the Grool is hiding at the top of the shelf. When she spots it, she screams and falls, causing the entire shelf to come down, blocking the door and spilling acid on the floor. The gang watches in fear as the Grool grows bigger and bigger.

Kat then decides to escape out the window. The kids rush to the janitor and attempt to lift him but he is too heavy. His Walkman/tape play then falls to the ground and they notice the Grool shrinking in size. Kat then deduces that the cheery, happy music is causing the Grool to shrink.

Unfortunately the tape player dies and the Grool begins to grow again. Until Carlo suggests that they kill it with kindness. And it works. Until the acid spilled on the floor causes the Grool to grow again. The janitor then wakes up and cleans up the acid on the floor and the Grool begins shrinking again. 

The Grool is Kat's forever, so it appears that every morning she has to wake up and be cheery to the horrid creature. And Killer is back! And they get to eat French Toast for breakfast! Yay! Happiness everywhere! Until...

Kat screams in fear because she finds a potato with teeth - a Lanx. 

Differences from the Book

Breaking into the school to find and defeat the Grool. 

Funny Quotes

• Kat's mom: "Katrina please. This isn't funny anymore."
• Kat's mom: "And so does your face."
• Carlo: "This is better than the X-Files." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
• Daniel: "When I grow up I wanna be a killer sponge just like you."

WTF Moments

• What kind of mother doesn't let their kid eat cold pizza for breakfast? Seriously?!!

Stupid Characters

The janitor. Who was "knocked out cold" after a little bump with the wall. He made up for it by getting rid of the acid on the floor.

And the Oscar Goes to...

It must have been difficult for these kids to stay in character and not burst out laughing at the fact they had to be afraid of a sponge. Lol. But who else can step in glass and no scream out in pain? And who else can say the following phrase without any sort of fear or emotion in their voice: "The door's blocked. We're trapped." Congratulations Daniel! 

Conclusion

This is an episode that suffered from being boring. Aside from the ridiculous idea that the "monster" is a sponge, the final confrontation with the Grool at the school was a snooze-fest and anti-climatic. Grool grows. Grool shrinks. Grool grows. Grool shrinks. Yawn! You're in bad luck if you hope to find any entertainment from this episode.